Oxfordshire Fire Service beat all its targets for average response times over the course of the past 12 months, according to an annual report to go before the county council this week.

In 2015/16, officers attended a total of 5,997 incidents in the county including fires, road traffic collisions, animal rescues, water rescues and others, including 828 medical emergencies.

The service aimed to arrive at 80 per cent of emergencies in 11 minutes or less, and 95 per cent of emergencies in 14 minutes or less – and met both targets, at 88.6 per cent and 96.3 per cent respectively.

A foreword to the report, written by Rodney Rose, cabinet member for the fire and rescue service, and outgoing chief fire officer David Etheridge OBE, stated: “We are very proud of our achievements during the past year.

“We want to thank all our staff who have contributed towards our achievements this year. We will continue to deliver a high-performing service to the people of Oxfordshire and are firmly committed to achieving excellence and further improving public and firefighter safety.”

The final spend for the entire service last year was £2.7m, meaning the cost of providing the fire and rescue service was £38.62 per year for each person in Oxfordshire and an average of £5,106 for each incident.

However, the service missed its target for the length of time taken to answer 999 calls. It aimed to have an administrator pick up a call within 15 seconds in 100 per cent of cases, but only managed 81.74.

The full report is to be discussed by Oxfordshire County Council’s performance scrutiny committee on Thursday, from 10am in County Hall.